Truth Be Told

I suspect one of the common denominators as to how giant corporations succeed is the fact that they are consumer based. By this I mean their products meet consumer demand based upon surveys. Lots of money is spent on research based on the surveys and the end result … the consumer is happy. And if the consumer is happy, they generate money through sales. Hmmm… sounds logical. What if we apply this in the context of the church? Will it work?

Mega churches worldwide seem to have applied this principle and it seems to work. They build their “products” to meet consumer demand based upon churchgoers’ surveys. This, according to what I understand is to maintain relevance in today’s context. Relevance … hmmm… I wonder how far the church would go, or change, or compromise in the name of relevance.

Truth be told, is this what the Lord require of His church today? I mean to be “consumer-based”? Is this why most pastors posses the ambition to want to build large churches? (Not that it’s wrong to have large churches). To be ambitious is good, especially so when it comes to the context of the church. Because every number represents a soul! BUT … there’s a right way and there is a wrong way to grow a church. Just because a church is mega does not necessarily mean that they are growing the right way or doing the right thing. Because most mega churches grow as a result of winning Christians from other churches instead of winning the lost! And the reason being … “consumer based product based on churchgoers’ surveys”. It’s not about soul winning. It’s about “how to keep Christians happy and “entertained” and keep them coming”.

Truth be told, Jesus wasn’t interested in building crowds as He was in telling the TRUTH. See, the crowd wants to be entertained. They want to see the miracles. One day Jesus turned to the crowd and preached a sermon. At the end of it, the crowd left (John 6:66) and Jesus asked His disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” (John 6:67).

Today’s churches have this implied slogan … “Anything and everything is acceptable as long as it builds a crowd”. Read this exhortation from the apostle Paul. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Tim 4:3)”. See the “consumer” demands and the church generates the “product”. Paul had great foresights when he wrote these statements.

Truth be told, the mission of a church is not to build a big church although in years to come, every healthy church will grow big naturally as long as it is evangelizing. But what is scary is when the church becomes a corporation and loses its spiritual context. Today pastors refer themselves as CEOs or CCOs and they run the church like in a corporation set up. Churches are so modernized that if you don’t have IT then you are not going to get IT. Got it?

I wonder, as pastors in today’s context, are we giving church members what they necessarily want or what they need. There is a huge difference here! Tell the truth or tell them what they want to hear. Build a church or build a crowd!

Hmmm … I think I will continue on this line of thought the next time I update my blog. Let me end here with this … pray over our church vision 5/10 on a daily basis. We want to build a church that Jesus wants us to build.